1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to automated test equipment for the testing of capacitors.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Capacitors manufactured using a film dielectric are typically characterized by the same electrical parameters as are ceramic or electrolytic capacitors. Representative of such parameters used to characterize film dielectric capacitors are capacitance, insulation resistance (i.e., leakage current), and dissipation factor. These are the parameters typically tested in order to insure that the manufacturing process produces devices that meet acceptable specified limits.
Individual pieces of test equipment are available for testing each of these various parameters. However, in order to obtain statistically significant results a large number of capacitors should be tested. Testing capacitors according to present industry practice is a time-consuming and labor intensive process. To effect such testing each capacitor is presently individually connected in turn to each piece of test apparatus and the appropriate test run on that apparatus. Since the testing of all of the capacitors should be effected under substantially identical test conditions, such as temperature and humidity, it is difficult to guarantee that such will be the case when a large number of capacitors are individually tested. Accordingly, it is believed advantageous to provide an apparatus which will automatically test each of a plurality of capacitor samples for each of a predetermined number of parameters under substantially identical test conditions.